Hours after its demise, the Chinese spy balloon was the star of the 'SNL' cold open

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/05/ [login to see] /snl-cold-open-chinese-spy-balloon-bowen-yang
Saturday Night Live kicked off last night's show by spoofing the latest suspected threat to national security: a Chinese balloon.

The balloon, which the Biden administration believes the Chinese government was using for surveillance, became an internet celebrity when people began tracking its travels across U.S. airspace. China's Foreign Affairs Ministry said the balloon was for meteorological research and accidentally went adrift. But its presence led Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a trip to Beijing amid rising tensions between the two nations.